The Big Boys That Left Everyone Guessing

AT LONG LAST, THEIR IDENTITIES have come to full circle as they had eluded Liberians for months.

IT SEEMED LIKE IT WAS ANOTHER Sherlock Holmes playbook and we kept turning the page to see whose hands would have been caught in the cookie jar.

AND IN A TRUE SHERLOCK’S FASHION—almost pretty much like Steve Martin’s Pink Panther which also starred queen of R&B Beyoncé—when everyone was wrongly guessing on the identities of the famous Big Boy 1 and Big Boy 2, the taskforce set up to investigate the Sable mining bribery scandal has finally revealed to the world the identities of the mystery figures.

THIS REVELATION REMINDS us of a passage of an op-ed written in FrontPage Africa years ago by former TRC Commissioner Mr. John Stewart.

IN THE OP-ED TITLED “REMEMBERING President Tolbert”, Mr. Stewart wrote:

“PUT TOGETHER A GOVERNMENT whose functionaries are hell-bent on making money for self and associates at all costs; add a Minister who is ready to sell his own soul to the devil for money from whatever quarter; add a President who sees nothing wrong in being unable to separate his private and government coffers and into this mix, put a parliament made up of bleating goats ready to sing any song that lines their pockets and finally coat the mixture with a nest of vipers passing off as journalists whose pockets have ever yawning chasms. And presto you have the right combination. Corruption that beggar’s belief.

“THE PASSAGE QUOTED above though written about Sierra Leone bears striking parallel to the situation in Liberia. The passage further reads: ‘Frank Timis is in good company in Sierra Leone where he has succeeded in getting one President Ernest Bai Koroma in his pocket, ready and willing to dance with gusto and energetic fervor to any tune he Vasile Frank Timis comes up with as long as his personal accounts are taken care of. Frank Timis must have watched and indeed studied the scenario in Sierra Leone and when he made his first bid during the Tejan Kabbah reign must have been pleasantly surprised at just how cheap and ready policy makers in Sierra Leone were ready to tow his chariot of corruption using the sweaty backs of hapless Sierra Leoneans.”

“AND SO CAN WE CONCLUDE that the above passage could just as well been written about Liberia? The Frank Timis spoken of is a shady character and notorious drug dealer. How does the situation in Sierra Leone compare to Liberia where reports of shady characters and drug dealers acquiring concessions have been rife?

“ARE THE PARALLELS TO LIBERIA not so similarly striking? Where are but gone are the Edwin Barclays, the Edward Wilmot Blydens, the Albert Portes, the Didho W. Twes, the RAYMOND HORACES, THE BOOKER T. Bracewells, the Juah Nimelys, the Madame Suakokos, the Suwah Kpuyuus, The Mary Antoinette Brown Shermans? Gone perhaps but never ever forgotten! OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO DREAM of yesterday! Good-bye to yesterday; Good-bye to Patriots! Good-bye to tortuous dreams of Nationalism, of Patriotism and of Statesmen and Stateswomen! Welcome to Carpetbaggers! Welcome to Demagogues! Welcome to Scumbags!”